L.O.L. (Import)

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For anyone who found Seaman to be a bit too run-of-the-mill.

By IGN Staff

Right off the bat, you know ASCII's L.O.L. ~Lack of Love is an odd title. Maybe the web page gives it away, as looking at the page and all its Japanese babble, it's hard to pinpoint what exactly the game is about. And that box... isn't Square the only company that's allowed to have a logo set atop a white background as the cover art for a game? Screenshots? Nowhere to be found.

This is one example of a game where you don't know what you've gotten yourself into until you've bought it, opened it up, popped it in your Dreamcast, let the intro run its course, then died as what you believed to be a cinema turned out to be gameplay.

That was my initial counter with the tiny nameless crustacean-like creature whom you control in L.O.L.. Once you've figured out what's what, you'll be able to walk around over the detailed 2D play fields using the analogue thumb pad. The X button allows you to attack other creatures and eat their remains or various other bits of food. The A button allows you to rest in order to recover your energy and view a radar map of nearby creatures - you need to rest and eat periodically in order to maintain your energy, as indicated by a green orb in the left corner of the screen. The B button allows you to communicate with other creatures - and no, they won't necessarily return the favor. Finally, there's the Y button. You know what Y is thinking - "Why Me!?" The Y button makes you, uhh, relieve yourself. Yes, this turns out to be an integral part of gameplay.

So what to do, what to do.... So far, L.O.L.'s gameplay seems to be heavily puzzle based, with clues offered up visually. In the first level, for instance, you walk around as your little creature, and come upon a scene of a creature like yourself casting beams of light at three crystals. He transforms into cocoon form. Later, as you find yourself blocked by a plant-platform that looks as if it could lead to another area, the cocoon hatches to reveal a large flying creature. The evolved creature flies up to the platform and urinates on it, opening up the path to the next area - which closes off before you can cross.

Videogame instinct (along with the fact that you're too small for your... uhh... stream... to reach the plant) suggests the following path to the next level: evolve yourself (most likely using the set of three crystals near to the place where the other creature evolved), then relieve yourself just as the other creature did. This proves to be the trick.

I'll leave the details to you. The game doesn't seem to require too much Japanese knowledge, as I haven't encountered a bit of Japanese text so far. The only thing that worries me is in the area of hints provided by pausing the game. You may not have to use this, though, and I certainly haven't so far. I'm not far enough on in the game to be sure, though, so you may want to wait for a FAQ before importing.

Your long-term goal in the game? To live, apparently - at least that's what the instruction manual says. Your short term goal? To advance to the next field of play, I presume. Progressing on to the next level may not be as easy as just figuring out a puzzle, as you have to deal with rival creatures. In level two, for instance, giant birds hover overhead and swoop down to attack. You can always take cover from them, although the game's creature-background collision is a bit iffy at times. You'll also have to deal with a day-night cycle in which some creatures sleep as night falls, and some rather smart enemy AI, where like enemies will surround you if you're not careful.

I'm not sure exactly what the main point of the game is, though. The background story tells of a distant star where a human migration project called L.O.L. resulted in a planetary colonization robot called Halumi being sent out into the cosmos. The game's intro depicts Halumi arriving on a planet deemed sustainable for human life. The robot goes about the colonization process, tanks and troops in tow.

So far in the game, I've only encountered the Halumi robot through his giant footsteps in the sand (the footsteps have the L.O.L. logo -- lol!!! - uhh, never mind that). I presume the game will at some point clarify how my character is related to Halumi. I presume I'll learn my origins and how I fall into the chain of being on the planet. Hell - even if I don't, I'm just content with being able to tell my friends that I evolved into flying form then urinated on a plant in order to proceed to level two.